A Whole New World
by SteveSki
Summary: Prompt from Brandywine that generated this story:    Ryan comes to Newport via canon/pilot/whatever. But he has no interest in Marissa Cooper and Seth is boggled at the tough guy completely ignoring the most popular/hottest/whatever girl in school...
1. Chapter 1

Heres a story I published on LJ a while ago pushed by a prompt from Brandywine.

_**A Whole New World**_

_"So who are you" Ryan hears. He's headed down the driveway while waiting for his lawyer to break the news to his wife about their unexpected house guest. He still can't believe he accepted Sandy's offer after Ryan called him this afternoon. _

_"Whoever you want me to be" retorts Ryan. As soon as the words leave his mouth he's kicking himself for his automatic response. This isn't Chino where he's expected to try and pick up every girl he runs into and he's trained himself to just hit on every new girl that he meets so the words have left his mouth before he could think. Now he's got to finish the game with this chick. Hopefully he won't end up having to take her to bed like he has with too many other girls who he has no interest in. After a little small talk he gets lucky and Sandy comes to the rescue and takes him up to the big house before he has to say much else to Marissa. _

_He hits it off with Seth, Sandy's son and they have a great weekend. Seth is a cool kid who accepts Ryan right away and he's happy to have a friend. While he considers Seth kind of cute and adorable there's no way he's letting himself think of Seth as anything but a friend. Seth spends the entire weekend talking about his life long crush and its obvious Seth is straight as an arrow and no good could come from Ryan thinking anything could happen. So Seth has been put very definitely in the friend only column which is just fine with Ryan because he has enough complications in his life and doesn't need to add another one to them. _

_Before he knows it the weekend is coming to an end and he figures out that its time to run before he gets sent back to foster care. He's been down that road before and there's no way he's going back if he can help it. He's packing and is almost ready to go when Seth catches him and convinces him that he's got a better plan. Turns out to be a pretty good plan and he ends up at one of Kirsten's model homes. He knows its not a real solution but it gives him some time to breath. Unfortunately Marissa got involved and he still has to play the "I'm interested" game with her since she's been hanging out with him and Seth. He'd much rather be hanging out with just Seth. Seth is so over the top that Ryan can just be low key and be himself. Even if he can never let Seth know that he's gay he doesn't have to play at being someone he's not and he's having a better time with Seth than anybody else. Seth is a little bit girl crazy but that's nothing new so he just enjoys the friendship while he can. _

_Seth and Marissa left a few hours ago and Ryan is just enjoying the solitude trying to come up with a plan for himself. He told Seth he was thinking about Austin but maybe West Hollywood or San Francisco would be a better place for him. From what he's heard these two places might be easier to blend in to the background. He hears a car pulling in the driveway and becomes worried. He's not supposed to be here and if it's a security guard he's screwed. Looking out he realizes its Marissa coming back without Seth. He realizes he's still screwed. Looks like Marissa has decided that she wants to be more than just friends with Ryan. It figures this would happen. He knows he started this game but he's pissed off at himself that he continues to put himself in these positions. _

_After a little small talk it become obvious that Marissa is making the move on him but he tells her "Marissa this isn't going to work". _

_He's hoping she thinks he doesn't want to get with her because he's leaving town. What he's really thinking is that he doesn't have to play his fake I love girls act when there's no one watching so what the heck is he doing. Once she leaves he's sorry that he upset Marissa but satisfied that he didn't let himself take the easy way out and sleep with her. He doesn't hear Luke and his buddies until it's too late. _

_"Stay away from my girl" yells Luke as he's rushing in to throw a punch at Ryan. They get into a scuffle and knock a couple of the lit candles over. Ryan's knocked out and the other boys run. Luke is the last one out of the house and realizes that Ryan was not following them. While he's pissed off at this new guy for trying to mack on Marissa he doesn't want him to die. He goes back and pulls him out of the fire. _

_Once he regains consciousness he tells Luke "Thanks" _

_Luke can't believe this kid just thanked him for knocking him out and almost killing him and just stares at the kid. "What are you thanking me for?"_

_"You could have left me to die in there. I know a lot of people who would have done just that" Ryan replies and starts walking away. _

_"Huh… Where are you going?" He asks Ryan as he's still trying to process the comment from him, wondering how someone can just expect to be left for dead. _

_"I should go and let Seth know I burned down his mom's development and see what's going to happen to me". _

_Not feeling right about letting Ryan take the blame for the fire he gives him a ride back to the Cohen's and they jointly confess to the fire resulting in them both being arrested and taken to jail. _

_It's obvious to Ryan that Luke has never been in lockup before. He can see the fear in Lukes eyes after the handcuffs are off and they are processed into the block. Figuring that this kid will be eaten alive if he's left alone, Ryan takes him under his wing and explains some of the facts of jail life to him. _

_"This may still be the OC but don't start anything here or your going to be someone else's bitch" he tells Luke reminding him of the first night they met and Lukes "That's how we do it in the OC bitch" comment. Luke really doesn't understand this kid. He should be leaving Luke to the wolves in here and yet he's giving him advice on how to survive. _

_With Ryan's help he manages to avoid a couple of run ins and the next morning they are both called up to the front. Luke is being bailed out and Ryan has a visitor. As Luke is leaving he gives Ryan a look that tries to convey Thanks and Sorry at the same time. _

_- . - . - . - . - . - _

_Ryan can't believe his luck. He gets out of Juvie thanks to Kirsten and then ends up being able to stay with the Cohens once his mother abandons him again after that horrible Casino Night. The thing is now that he's here for a while he's going to have to figure out how to handle Marissa. She's made it pretty clear she wants to be his boyfriend but he's not interested. This isn't Chino and he doesn't have to bed every girl who makes a pass at him, at least he hopes not. _

_Cotillion ends up being another weird but interesting Newport party. Originally he gets paired up with Anna, a new girl from Philadelphia. They seem to hit it off as possible friends and no sexual innuendo at all which is something new for him. Its obvious that Anna is interested in Seth and since his obsession over Summer is going nowhere maybe he can help his friend out and hook up the two of them. Of course the party ends up in the usual way with him in a fight, but at least Sandy and Kirsten gave him a pass this time because he was defending Marissa's dad. _

_The rest of the summer goes great with a few exceptions. Ryan was trying to avoid complications but they had a way of happening no matter what he did. He's still dodging Marissa as much as possible. Because they are neighbors and are going to be classmates once school starts he can't completely avoid her but he does his best to keep the relationship at the friendship level. Marissa's always trying to get him alone and more intimate but between Luke and the fact that her mother hates him he's been able to prevent anything from happening. But ever since Marissa caught Luke cheating on her in TJ they are no longer together so it's getting a lot tougher. _

_The Cohens let him get a job at the Crab Shack for the summer which resulted in him meeting Donnie. He's still not sure why he agreed to go out with Donnie that first night but he quickly realized that the Long Beach party scene was no different than the Chino party scene and he really wasn't interested so he ditched Donnie using Marissa as an excuse. It doesn't look like Marissa is going to give up and he's used to playing the dating game and figures its safer to be with Marissa than Donnie. Talk about the lesser of two evils. But Seth, being Seth decided to invite Donnie to a beach party resulting in Luke being shot. The only good thing about the incident is that Marissa seems to have started to forgive Luke and stays with him at the hospital. _

_As the summer wears on Kirsten tries to spend more time at home now that she has two boys to look after. Caleb doesn't make is easy but she manages to arrange to work at home most afternoons so she can keep an eye on things and make sure that Ryan is fitting in. One thing she's been surprised at is how Ryan handles Marissa. It's obvious to her that Marissa is interested in Ryan and she had assumed that she would have to be putting her foot down when it comes to Ryan's sexual activities. She has no doubts that his old life provided any number of opportunities for quick and easy sex and she had assumed that she would be working overtime to prevent them being together since Marissa was so obviously pushing for it. Kirsten has been doing her best to pay attention to the signs and was ready to step in to stop things and have a talk with Ryan at the appropriate time. However Ryan's been a perfect gentleman when it comes to Marissa. In fact based on everything she's seen the subtle signs show that he's not interested in her in that way at all so she's able to put that worry behind her, for now at least. _

_School starts and things get real interesting for Ryan. Since Anna's interested in Seth he's got a female friend that's not trying to hit on him and that's a whole new experience for him. Seth and Anna are in a couple of his classes which is really cool and while he can tell that he's the subject of gossip, for the most part things don't seem awful. There are a number of jerks who try and put him down for not being one of them but for the most part he doesn't seem to stick out that much. He's always been good at trying to stay on the edges looking like he fits in to the crowd without actually being part of the crowd so this is nothing new. _

_One of his biggest complications is Seth who won't stop trying to get Ryan and Marissa together. Every time he thinks he's been able to put Marissa out of relationship thinking Seth pushes them back together. He thinks that Marissa and Ryan should be together. The fact that Summer is Marissa's best friend has a lot to do with it. He's hoping the closer that Marissa gets to Ryan the more that Summer will be around. That along with the obvious expectation that since Ryan is from Chino he's experienced and should be all over Marissa since she's a hot chick and she wants him. Ryan's just wishing that Seth would get over Summer and get with Anna so that he could stay away from Marissa. _

_"So, have you two done the dirty deed yet" Seth asks Ryan as they are heading up the stairs at school. _

_Ryan just gives him one of his glares that says "lay off me man" _

_"Well, you know I just assume since Marissa is obviously so in to you and you know it's not like your new at this…. You have haven't you….I mean your from Chino so you have to be experienced." _

_Again, no words just a glare in return which Seth reads as "Yeah I've done it before, what do you think" _

_"Ok…so you're really experienced right. You can give me some pointers right. I definitely need pointers when it comes to picking up girls. So how many times have you done it?"_

_Ryan doesn't know how to respond to that question. Yeah, he's had sex with girls but only the ones who come on to him. He's never really tried all that hard to get a girl into bed with him. He flirts with them because he's covering himself but he's never talked a girl into it who wasn't after him to begin with. But then there are the guys. He'd only managed to fool around with 2 guys. The first guy came on to him and that was a pretty crazy situation, not to mention eye opening. But he was the one to see the connection with Brian and he actually was the aggressor in that situation. Thinking about it, the flirting thing wasn't that different than with the girls, he just took it a lot further until he ended up doing the deed. While this is going though his mind he's trying to decide how he should respond. If he was to answer Seth's real question as to giving him pointers on picking up girls he'd be pretty disappointed…" _

_"Oh wow, that many, you're my hero" Seth interrupts interpreting Ryan's look as "too many to count" so Ryan drops the conversation at that hoping Seth will move on to another topic which he does because Seth just can't not fill the quiet with words. Ryan appreciates this about Seth, not for the first time. _

_Seth runs into Marissa at lunch and takes the opportunity to invite himself and Ryan to hang out with her and Summer at the Kick-Off carnival that evening. He knows Marissa is into Ryan and figures he's doing his new brother a favor by fixing them up on a pseudo date. Of course there's the fact that where Marissa goes, Summer generally goes, so this will give him another chance with Summer. _

_When he gets home he tells Ryan about the carnival and the fact that they will be hanging out with Marissa and Summer. Not wanting the carnival to look like a double date Ryan invites Anna so it becomes more of a group thing than a double date. Anna just got back from her summer trip to Tahiti and he hasn't had a chance to spend that much time with her since Cotillion so he figures this is a good opportunity to spend some time with her and maybe he can help get Anna and Seth together. _

_He and Seth are with Anna throwing rings at bottles when Marissa and Summer appear. _

_"Oh hi, you remember Anna, from Cotillion, she's new, figured she could hang with us" Ryan tells the group. _

_Things are a little awkward at first with the various tensions in the group. Anna likes Seth, Seth likes Summer, Summer seems to be warming up to Seth, Marissa likes Ryan and Ryan wants none of them. Ryan's looking around and sees this cute guy heading their way. Actually he reminds him of Seth in a lot of ways only much more athletic and definitely sexier. He notices Anna in the group as he's walking by and stops to say Hi to her. _

_"Hi Tyler hows it going?" asks Anna. I assume you know most everyone here since you've all been going to school for years. This is Ryan he's new this year too." Turning to the group "Tyler and I met at one of my parents dinners. Our dad's have some business thing going on" _

_Tyler says Hi and they recognize each other from some classes they share. He's going to meet some friends from the Soccer team which leads to him talking to Ryan about trying out for the team. After a little more small talk Tyler takes off with Anna noticing Ryan watching him leave and something clicks in her mind. _

_"So …. I see now why I never had a chance with you" she says with a smile speaking softly so the others don't hear her. _

_Not having a clue how to respond he gives her a glare. Ryan's ready to kick himself. He's never been caught out before. Is he getting too soft here? Is he giving off "gay" vibes? What the hell is he going to do? Ryan's head is spinning as Anna continues to look between him and glancing towards Tyler's back as he's been walking away with that knowing smirk. _

_Finally he figures "Shit, she knows anyway so there's nothing I can do about it" so then to Anna "Ok .. Yeah .. Is this going to be a problem?" he asks. _

_"Of course not silly boy. I've always wanted to be a fag hag" she whispers to him and gives him a conspiritual wink as he lets go of the breath he hadn't realized he was holding on to. _

_"Maybe this isn't so bad" he thinks to himself as he punches her lightly in the arm and whispers back to her "Sorry your out of luck, no fags here…. But yeah he's kinda hot, isn't he?" he admits to her. _

_After the uncomfortable start the five of them end up enjoying themselves going on the various rides and playing the carnival games. Ryan does pretty well with the games and ends up with a number of plushy toys which he's been giving to the girls. Each of the girls are carrying a fairly large toy when Luke and a couple of his buddies cross their path. Ryan sees him coming and steels himself for another confrontation as the two groups stop to say hi. He sees Luke looking at the girls and he can tell that Luke is jealous. He can tell that Luke is looking at the big teddy that Marissa is holding on to and he just knows that Luke is thinking that Ryan won it for her in order to impress her. _

_"Crap, he thinks. I'm just digging the hole deeper" although he sees Luke mentally back down after a second. He figures out that Luke realizes that Marissa is still pretty pissed at him and if he makes a big deal out of it he's just going to push her further away so he gives Ryan a dirty look and says good bye as the two groups separate. _

_All in all not a bad start to the school year Ryan thinks as he makes it home. No fights and Anna figured out my big secret and the world has not imploded. This is something new for him and he's learning to like it. _

_- . - . - . - . - . - ._

_The next day Ryan walks into his English class and sees Tyler waving him over. He heads over to Tyler's table and acknowledges to himself that he's got a crush on this kid and he's a little scared. This is a first for him. He's never been interested in any of the girls that have come on to him and the two guys he has hooked up with were just quickies to get his rocks off so he's in new territory for himself. _

_Tyler's your typical jock and assuming Ryan does well at Soccer tryouts they will be teammates. He's a bit bigger than Ryan and pretty athletic so if he realizes that he's being checked out and goes off on Ryan it would be a tough fight. __"This is bad"__ he thinks. _

_"Dude, Sally decided she wanted to go sit with her new boyfriend so we've got an extra seat and your tables one over. Why don't you grab a seat here" he says pointing out a chair across the table from him. _

_Ryan just shrugs and takes the seat giving Tyler a little smile as Tyler reminds him that soccer tryouts are that afternoon and he expects to see him there. __"God, what a cute smile he has"__ thinks Ryan and then mentally slaps himself and responds back "I'll be there". _

_He and Tyler ended up sharing 3 classes. On the first day of school before the carnival they were already sharing a table in Calculus just by random coincidence and now he's at the same table for all three of their classes. When he got to their Science class this morning the teacher told them they had to pick out their lab partners for the semester and Tyler suggested they be partners so now they are sharing the same lab bench. And now he's sitting across from Tyler in Spanish. If he didn't know better he would think Tyler's being creative in seat assignment. He's not going to complain. He likes Tyler and hopefully they will become friends but he needs to make sure Tyler doesn't figure out what kind of friends he'd really like to be. _

_Tryouts go well and Ryan makes the team. Once he's on the team it seems to help cement the fact that he's at Harbor for good and even more of the kids seem to accept him being there. The first week goes well but Luke apparently can't keep his anger in check and goes after Ryan during one of the drills. He tackles Ryan pretty hard and knocks Ryan down. _

_"What a dick"__ he thinks as he jumps up and gets in Lukes face. He's getting ready to pull his arm back to punch this jerk in the face as he remembers his promise to Sandy and Kirsten __"No more fights, promise"__. He hesitates trying to calm himself down. He so wants to hit this kid but he's promised to try and resolve things without his fists. _

_Luke sees that Ryan wants to hit him but is holding back. Yeah he's jealous and he's sure that Ryan is after Marissa but if he hadn't cheated this wouldn't have happened. And even if Ryan's after Marissa he is a stand up guy in other areas. If it wasn't for Ryan having his back when they were both in Juvie that one night Luke would have probably gotten his ass kicked. Luke is conflicted about what he's doing and after a short stare down Luke tells Ryan "Sorry". _

_Ryan can see that Luke really means it. "Look man, I swear I'm not interested in Marissa that way. I just want to be friends. She's the one who wants more" he admits. _

_Hearing Ryan's words at first Luke wants to call him a liar and get back in his face but he reminds himself that he's admitted that Ryan can be a stand up guy so maybe he is telling the truth. Processing what he's been told he backs off and heads over to the coach who's pretty pissed at him. _

_Its several days later and Seth barges into the pool house, once again without knocking reminding Ryan that he has to ask about getting a lock installed on that door. He likes that Seth is comfortable enough with him that he's ok with just barging in like any real brother would, but he does need his privacy at times. He really doesn't want Seth barging in while he's taking care of business. He especially doesn't want to have to get into any uncomfortable discussions about what he fantasizes about when he's jerking off. He can imagine Seth's disgust if he ever figured out that Ryan's favorite image right now is Tyler pulling his shirt off his sweaty body right after Soccer practice. Girls tits have nothing over that boys muscled chest!_

_"Dude, what's with you and Marissa?" Seth asks as he flops down on Ryan's bed. "It seems like Luke has finally realized that she's not going to get back with him so its open season. Why aren't you all over that?" Seth just doesn't get why Ryan hasn't jumped at the opportunity to have a real date with Marissa since she's officially available now. _

_"It's not gonna happen Seth. I don't need the hassle. She's way too high maintenance for me and I promised your parents I wouldn't get in any more trouble." He tells Seth realizing that he may have found just the right explanation for Seth that may get him off his back. _

_"You know, this, you, your family, is the best thing that ever happened to me and I don't want to mess it up. Between her drinking and willingness to flirt with me while she was still dating Luke she's just going to get me into trouble if I get involved with her." And after a short pause he concludes with "If it's a choice between her or you guys I chose you." _

_"Wow, man, I never really thought of if that way. But yeah dude I get it. Ok then, how about a re-match" Seth responds changing the subject. _

_Ryan and Tyler got assigned to do pick up after practice. By time they collected all the equipment and got it put away the rest of the team were finishing up in the locker room. A lot of the guys were already gone and the rest were finishing up and would be gone pretty quickly. Ryan stripped down and headed into the communal shower. He actually liked it when the shower room was empty. He was always a little worried that one of the guys would pick up on something so he's developed a routine where he finds a shower in the corner of the room and keeps his eyes to the walls. He's also usually one of the first ones in and out of the shower so there's never a chance of someone accusing him of looking. _

_Since the rest of the team is gone he can take his time and just relax with the hot water pounding down. He's got his back to the entry way and hears Tyler enter. Oh shit he thinks, he forgot about Tyler. One of the main reasons he's developed his little routine is to avoid Tyler in the shower. He's managed to check Tyler out being discreet as possible and knows what a great body this guy has. He's afraid of what may happen if he looks at Tyler so he just stays where he is looking at the walls and hoping that Tyler will do a quick rinse and leave the shower area so Ryan can get his towel. _

_"So man, that was a tough practice" Tyler says._

_"Yeah, I'm still getting used to the regular work outs. It's been a long time since I've been in organized sports" Ryan admits. _

_"You'd never know. You're a natural. I think your going to be one of the best players on the team"_

_"You really think so?" _

_Ryan is waiting for Tyler to respond and when he doesn't he turns around to see if he left while Ryan was talking. The first thing he notices is Tyler's dick is way bigger than normal. He's checked him out on more than one occasion so he knows what it looks like in the shower and this thing has grown. He's getting hard Ryan realizes in shock. Wow, he figured that Tyler was a grower and would be huge but actually seeing it get bigger and bigger right in front of his eyes was way better than anything he imagined. When he realizes that he's been staring at Tyler who's dick has been working its way up to getting a full on hard on he thinks he's screwed and looks up at Tyler's face expecting to see fury on his face. _

_Instead Tyler is just smiling at him and says "Sorry dude…but it's your fault you know" _

_"Huh?"_

_"Well you've been teasing me with that cute ass of yours and I'm just your average horny teenage boy so …." He says looking down at his partially engorged member. _

_Oh shit thinks Ryan, what the hell am I supposed to do now? Is Tyler hitting on me? Should I admit it? But then he realizes as he looks down that he's half hard himself so there's no denying anything at this point. So he just looks back at Tyler and gives him a smirk and a little shrug as if to say "caught me". _

_"Look, we should get out of here before someone walks in on us" Tyler tells him. "You want to go get something to eat?" he asks_

_They make it to the parking lot before either of them says another word. Ryan's saying nothing because he doesn't have a clue what to do next. All of his experience is telling him to get the hell out of this situation before things go bad and he gets his ass kicked for being a fag. But Tyler's hitting on him and he likes it so he wants to stay and find out what's going to happen. _

_"You have a car?" Tyler asks_

_"Nope, Seth has got the keys today" _

_"So, you want a ride?"_

_"What just happened in there?" Ryan asks wanting to make sure he understands things correctly. _

_"I guess I just outed myself to you" Tyler tells Ryan with a smile, "and I'm hoping that's OK with you and your reaction back there was what I think it was…." He continues, pointing back towards the locker room. _

_Ryan thinks to himself that this is it. He's already come out to Anna, even if she's the one who pulled him out of the closet so he should take the next step and just admit it to the guy he's crushing on. _

_"I don't really know what to say. This is kinda new to me" _

_"Oh…but not completely new is it?" Tyler asks wondering how much of a newbie Ryan really is. He knows that Ryans been checking him out so he's pretty sure he knows where the conversation is going but you never know how a guys gonna react to being hit on so he's treading carefully. _

_"Nope, not completely new" Ryan sheepishly admits. _

_"Good, so dude you want to get that cup of coffee?" _

_They've been taking for quite a while. Ryan telling Tyler that yeah he's had a couple of experiences and knows he likes guys way more than he likes girls and Tyler filling him in on the fact that there are a couple of other guys on the team that are gay/bi. Conner and Tyler were each others first time and while they aren't together or anything they have stayed friends. Conner is one of the other key players on the team and like Tyler he's also in the closet. Then there's Marco. He's a little more out of the closet but is truly a bi guy and an equal opportunity slut. At school he has slept with most of the girls who like to sleep around but he's also been known to hang out in LA at the gay clubs. Tyler's been up there with him and Marco is as popular with the boys in LA as he is with the girls in Newport. Since he's usually got a girl friend at school the few people who do know about his LA trips go along with his don't ask/don't tell policy. _

_"No, never had a boyfriend, never even kissed a guy" Ryan admits. _

_"So you skipped the kissing part and straight to the gay sex" Tyler asks_

_"When it comes to getting your rocks off if there's no kissing involved then its not gay, or at least that's what they tell themselves. Probably has something to do with the fact that so many guys have been in juvie or jail and they have to pass of what goes on in there as not gay. Being gay is like a death sentence in Chino. I've seen my brother and his friends literally beating the shit out of guys they accused of being gay. If he ever finds out about me not only will he disown me, it will be just another beat down for him". _

_"Wow, that's too bad. My mom knows about me. She walked in on me and Conner making out one afternoon. It was pretty embarrassing but she seems ok with it. I'm pretty sure she's told Dad but we haven't talked about it. Since I've never brought anyone home I guess we are just avoiding the topic but at least I'm sure my parents aren't going to hate me." _

_Tyler has figured out that Ryan really is afraid of being kicked out of the Cohen's if they were to find out. Its obvious Ryan is just beginning to come to grips with his sexuality and pushing him right now would force him to hide even further so he makes up his mind that for now they will just be friends. He'll just have to be patient. _

_Its been a few weeks since he's joined the team and everything has been going well. Tyler was right and it turns out he's one of the better players. He and Tyler are getting along great. Seth has backed off on trying to fix him and Marissa up. Probably has to do with the fact that he's finally dating Anna but no matter the reason Ryan's life is going good right now. _

_But with the Atwood luck he knew that couldn't last. Today's the day Mr Tolliver announces partners for the new history class project. He knows that Marissa has been bugging the teacher to assign them as partners and if this happens he's going to have to deal with her coming on to him all over again. It looks like she's never going to leave him alone and he hasn't figured out what to do about it yet. _

_If this was Chino and he was dealing with a girl like her he'd have to do her because of the peer pressure. The guys would never let him get away with not sleeping with a girl who was pushing that hard. He doesn't have to deal with that pressure here so he really doesn't want to have to follow through with Marissa. Not that it might not be a bad idea to release some of his pent up needs. He's finding it harder and harder to not be thinking of a naked Tyler in bed but maybe its just a case of blue balls and if he gets off with someone else it will help. But the more he thinks about it the more he knows that's a bad idea. He can tell she's a needy girl who would never let it go if he gave in and while the sex may be ok the price he'd have to pay is just not worth it. _

_"Cooper & Sanders" he hears as the teacher is calling out names and thinks he's dodged the bullet. _

_"Atwood & Ward"_

_Well he dodged one bullet but not the other Ryan thinks as he and Luke trade scowls with each other. _

_Turns out Luke is not a bad partner for a project like this. They seem to have come to an unspoken agreement to not deal with the Marissa issue and just work on the project. He has a lot of good ideas and they work ok together. Luke takes them to his Dad's dealership to use some of the equipment there and they start checking out the models on the floor. _

_"Hey man check this one out. Have a seat" Luke tells Ryan as they get into one of the cars once again telling himself that in other circumstances Ryan would be a good guy to hang with. _

_"Isn't that your Dad over there?" _

_"Yeah and his business partner Gus, lets go say hey." _

_Heading towards the office they see Carson and Gus kissing which totally freaks out Luke who backs into a car, knocking his books down and setting off the alarm. As they both reach down to grab the books Luke spits out "If you tell anyone I'll kill you". _

_"No man, I won't tell anyone" Ryan responds as they run out the door. _

_Not even two days later the whole school knows about it. Ryan finds Luke to check up on him. Luke grabs him and shoves him against the lockers "You just couldn't keep your mouth shut could you?" _

_Ryan doesn't know what to say so just stares at Luke as he walks away. _

_For the rest of the day Ryan hears the nasty remarks being made about Luke and his dad. He's pretty sure he has an idea of how Luke is feeling. This is the kind of crap he expects to happen to him if anyone ever finds out only it will probably be much worse if they figure out its him that's gay, not just a family member. He knows Luke is pissed at him and thinks he's the one who gossiped so he heads over to Lukes to try and let him know that it wasn't him. _

_Luke opens the door and sees Ryan and again finds himself impressed with this kid. After this morning Ryan should have just walked away and left him to wallow in his own pity but no, the kid shows up here. _

_"Look man, I need to apologize to you. Turns out it was my Mom. Dad told her, she freaked out and told one of her friends and next thing you know the whole town knows" he tells Ryan. _

_"No worries, man. I just wanted to check on you and see how you were doing."_

_"I just want to get out of here, you wanna come with?"_

_"Sure, how about if I give Tyler a call and we meet up somewhere?" Ryan asks thinking that it might be good to have a little back up. _

_"You think he's going to want to be seen with me?" Luke returns with a detected look on his face. _

_"Yeah, he's a good guy. He's not the type to give you shit about something like this". _

_"kay"_

_Luke and Ryan are hanging out at the softball field waiting for Tyler. Luke got a hold of a couple of six packs and is working on his third beer while Ryan is nursing his first. Ryan thinks this is not a good time for him to get buzzed. Any conversation revolving around being gay is just not something he's comfortable with. He's not sure why he wanted Tyler to join them. It could only make things more complicated if Luke figures out he's hanging out with two gay kids after he finds out his fathers gay. But he's out of his comfort zone and he hopes Tyler may be able to help. _

_Luke's been telling him his feelings about being lied to all these years and what a mess his life is now. _

_After hearing Luke talk about his Dad he realized that Carson cares for Luke and Luke is not really seeing it. He wishes his family could be like that. He knows exactly how Dawn and Trey will react if they ever find out and it won't be pretty. _

_"At least you have a Dad who cares, who shows up to some of your games, or even knows what sport you play" he tells Luke. _

_He can tell there are a lot of things that Ryan is not saying but the few words that he has heard make Luke think. __"Wow, maybe other guys do have it worse than I do. Sounds like this kid had a rougher life than I thought". _

_Ryan continues on with "Do you think any of this really matters. If it was the other way around do you think your dad would care if it was you?" Ryan's curious as to how Luke is going to answer his question. He's been listening to both Anna and Tyler talk about coming out of the closet and that's something he's never considered before. Its reactions like he's seeing about Lukes Dad that confirm his belief that it would be a bad idea. Even so he wonders what Luke thinks about it. _

_Luke doesn't have an immediate response for this and as he's thinking about it a couple of guys from the Del Visa team show up and start hassling them. He and Ryan look at each other and he can see they are on the same page so they take these two kids down. Then they see another 4 guys come up and shit its going to be 6 to 2, they are so dead. From behind them they hear someone else coming up behind them and Ryan's really cringing thinking this is only going to get worse. _

_Then he hears Tyler "Looks like you guys need a hand" and he's glad he called him. Its going to be bad but at least it won't be a massacre. _

_He turns his head to look back and give Tyler a smile/smirk that tries to say thanks for coming and sorry I got you into this mess all in one look. _

_Afterwards as they nurse their wounds at the Cohen house Luke comes to the conclusion that Ryan is right and he should deal with his Dad. On top of that he finally acknowledges to himself that he and Ryan have become friends and he's actually very ok with that. And then he's wondering about the way that Tyler interacts with Ryan. Its something he would have never noticed before but looking back at some hints he should have picked up over the years with his dad he's starting to see things a little differently. Is it possible that Tyler's interested in Ryan? And if so does it matter? He's known Tyler since they were kids and while they aren't that tight Tyler's a good guy. Though that would put a whole new spin on the Ryan/Marissa thing. Luke's whole world has been turned upside down in the last 48 hours and he has no idea what to think right now. _

_Now that Seth is dating Anna, Ryan has got a lot more time to fill but between soccer, Luke, Anna and Tyler he's keeping busy. He and Tyler have been spending a lot of time together. Since they have so many classes together they spend a lot of time studying. Sometimes they hang out at Tyler's and sometimes in the pool house. Anna is in their Spanish class so sometimes it's all three of them. _

_Anna's been very low key about the vibes she sees between Ryan and Tyler. She has had a couple of discussions with Ryan trying to convince him that it would be ok for him to go with his feelings but so far Ryan's not willing to think about it. He's not gonna fuck his new life up and if that means he has to keep dating girls so be it. _

_Tyler's working with Ryan on a lab problem and studying for a test together. It's been several weeks since their initial conversation and while he has not made any moves Tyler is definitely pushing the envelope when he can. During lab time he's gotten bolder and bolder about getting close to Ryan. When they 'accidently' bump shoulders or brush against each other grabbing for something on the table he can tell that Ryan's nervous but he's stopped flinching and is just going with it. _

_Like right now, they are _sitting on the floor backs against the bed going over material for a test later that week. Tyler plopped down right next to Ryan earlier. He's been pushing into Ryan's personal space bit by bit and now they are both reviewing the same report so he's scrunched over so his leg is right against Ryan's. Its been a couple of minutes and Ryan has made no move to get away from Tyler. Finally Tyler decides he's had enough of this tip toeing around their attraction for each other. He gives up the pretence of reading the report and starts gazing into Ryan's face. After a bit he can tell that Ryan realizes what's going on and that Ryan's no longer paying attention to the report either. Tyler takes the notebook out of Ryan's hands and drops it on the floor out of the way locking eyes with Ryan. He reaches over and puts his hand on Ryan's shoulder pulling on it just a little so that Ryan's forced to look at him straight on. He's giving Ryan every chance to pull away or to say no but he can't see anything on Ryan's face that says "_stop_" so he moves closer until his mouth is right over Ryans. He starts with a nip of Ryan's lower lip causing Ryan to open up a little and he uses that opportunity to slide his tongue in. He's a little tentative at first but as he feels Ryan responding he gets bolder.

Ryan can feel Tyler's eyes on him. Tyler pushed up right next to him so they have been sitting side by side for a few minutes now and Ryan has been enjoying the warmth of Tyler's body right next to him. He's come to appreciate these moments where Tyler's touching him even though they aren't doing anything. Every time Tyler touches him he feels something and its killing him not to do anything about it.

As Ryan is contemplating his frustration, Tyler reaches over and takes the notebook Ryan has in his hands and tosses it to the side. Ryan's then being pulled over so he's staring right into Tyler's eyes and he can feel himself falling into that stare. He's never felt this kind of a pull before and he can't stop himself from wanting more. He's attracted to Tyler big time but he's been holding back. He knows it's a horrible idea but he doesn't flinch as Tyler moves closer and closer. Finally Tyler's nibbling on his lips and he lets him in. As soon as Tyler's tongue enters his mouth its like his whole world explodes. He's read stories about fireworks going off during sex and now he knows what they are talking about.

The boys are rolling back and forth on the floor, sometimes Tyler on top of Ryan and then its Ryan rolling Tyler on his back and thrusting his hips into Tylers crotch. Tongues battling, Ryan kisses like he has never kissed before. Tyler fits so well in Ryan's arms he can't stop rubbing his whole body up and down Tyler and then it happens.

"_Oh my god I just came in my pants_." He realizes and pulls himself off Tyler. This is something that has never happened before.

Tyler doesn't get it at first. "_What happened?_" One second everything is great, he's got Ryan's tongue in his mouth and his hands all over Ryan's back and ass and then all of a sudden Ryan has pulled back and is just staring at Tyler with this freaked out look. Then he see's the wet spot on Ryan's jeans.

"I guess I don't have to ask if you liked that do I?" He asks Ryan with a huge smile on his face.

Ryan's a little embarrassed that he just came all over himself that way but he's more focused on the whole experience and how good it felt. When he's been with girls he's always done a lot of kissing and heavy petting because that usually keeps them happy enough not to push for more. He does enjoy the experience with girls but these last 5 minutes with Tyler were mind blowing. He never knew it could be like this and fuck yeah he wants more.

"Yeah, you cold say I liked that" he says with a huge smile on his face as he rolls back over to put his weight on top of Tyler and now he's the one kissing Tyler hard and fast. Ryan reaches for Tyler's buckle. It's his turn to return the favor.

Kirsten is at the sink rinsing out a coffee cup as she sees Tyler heading across the patio towards the side gate. He's fumbling with his book bag and looks a little flushed she thinks. She sees him tucking in his shirt and for some reason it reminds her of her teenage years. Heading home and putting herself together after a heavy make out session with Jimmy. "_Oh_" she thinks and then a few other things fall into place. She's seen the way that Ryan has sidestepped Marissa's advances and has noticed that he doesn't talk about girls at all. Although since Ryan is not the most talkative teenager in the world that may not mean anything. But … maybe now she understands what's going on.

She decides to sit down at the counter and see if Ryan joins her. Maybe its time to have a heart to heart with Ryan and see if she can get him to open up a little. A few minutes later Ryan comes in to get a soda out of the refrigerator. She can see the evidence of swollen lips and maybe even a hickey peeking out from the T-Shirt so she knows she's on the right track.

"So how'd the study session go?" asks Kirsten

"Fine, we have a test on Friday so lots to do"

"You and Tyler seem to spend a lot of time together. Is the material that difficult?" asks Kirsten trying to figure out how to open up this conversation. Ryan has never been one to talk and she knows this is probably going to be even tougher.

"No, not really that tough, Tyler's cool and we like hanging out."

"I noticed" she says looking right at Ryan with a little smile on her face.

Ryan sees the look on her face and freezes. That's a '_I know something you don't want me to know'_ look if he ever saw one. He doesn't say anything in response.

After a short wait where it becomes obvious Ryan is not going to say any more she continues. "I saw Tyler leaving earlier and I'd have to say that it looks like he really enjoyed your hanging out time based on the smile on his face as he left".

"_Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit_" Ryan chants in his mind. He's completely frozen right now with fear. He's never lied straight out to Kirsten and doesn't want to start now but …..

He thinks about the talks he has had with Anna. Other than Anna he's never admitted his true feelings to anyone. She's been encouraging him to be more honest. Should he do it now? But what if I'm wrong and she gets mad and kicks me out. '_Shit, shit, shit_'

Kirsten can see the wheels turning in Ryan's mind even though he hasn't said anything in nearly a minute.

"I noticed that Marissa seems to have gotten your hints and stopped chasing you so hard" she tries.

Ryan decides that she knows and she's trying to get him to admit it so here goes "Yeah – Tyler's a lot easier to hang out with than Marissa".

"Because you like him more?"

A short hesitation, then "Yeah"

"Ryan, if your gay its ok"

At the gay word Ryan freaks out a little. Even though he and Tyler have talked about gay vs bi and now that he's actually kissed Tyler he's pretty sure he's gay because he's never felt like that after kissing a girl Ryan's not comfortable with the gay word. "No, no I'm not gay" he throws back but then a few seconds later. "I've been with lots of girls so I'm more like Bi. I'm into girls but yeah I like Tyler too."

"You know Ryan it doesn't matter whether you're gay, straight or Bi."

Avoiding the topic Ryan asks "How did you figure it out?"

"Well I could tell you weren't that interested in Marissa and just now I could tell that Tyler looked like he just got out of a pretty serious make out session so things kind of came together for me. Not to mention the physical evidence" she says tapping herself on the neck in the same space that she noticed Ryan's hickey and giving him a smile.

Ryan doesn't know how to respond to this revelation. He's struggling for a response when Kristen tells him.

"You should tell Sandy and Seth".

"No, I can't".

"It won't matter to them".

"Yes, yes it will. Stuff like this always does. I'm not going to do it. Forget it…please" he pleads.

"But.." Kirsten starts but is cut off.

"This is my business".

"Yes, your right it is your business and I wont say anything."

"I don't talk about myself. I don't trust people. Look at my life and tell me you don't see why I don't. I'm just not going to have this conversation any more". Ryan spits out at her and turns around to head back out across to the pool house.

Kirsten realizes that she' boxed herself in. If she tells anyone else she'll break Ryan's trust and prove him right. She comes to the conclusion that since this news isn't hurting anyone else she has no choice but to keep the secret. She's conflicted though. Even though it's not hurting anyone else its definitely hurting Ryan and she's not sure how to proceed.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks life changes a lot for Ryan. Ryan has figured out that yes he's gay and yes sex with guys is a whole lot more intense than with any girl. The difference between guys and girls is like the difference between masturbation and actual sex. While one will do the job the other is just so much better.

"So, something's different" Anna points out to them one afternoon about a week after their first kiss.

Tyler responds with a huge smile, "You noticed, huh?"

"Its hard not to notice. I don't think I've ever seen Ryan smile as much as I've seen him smile in the last few days. Not that you don't have a huge grin on your face but Ryan's not known for showing smiles. Then there's the fact that there is like zero space between the two of you right now" She points out to them.

Ryan realizes that he has become so comfortable with Anna that he didn't even notice that he practically cuddled right up to Tyler on the floor. They are working on one of their labs and he's moved over so that his and Tylers legs are wrapped around each other and he hadn't even noticed.

"Yeah, he finally succumbed to my charms and good looks … Not that it didn't take a little work. He's one tough nut to crack. " Tyler jokes with Anna.

"You know I wouldn't have held out on you so long" she teased back.

"Hey, Hey, quit flirting with my boyfriend" Ryan shoots back. The words are out of his mouth before he realizes what he just said.

"Boyfriend?" Tyler repeats. He's surprised Ryan used that word. He knows that Ryan is still having a hard time coming to grips with his sexuality and he never expected him to get comfortable enough to think of himself as another guys boyfriend this quick. He's looks into Ryan's eyes and smiles with a questioning look on his face. Was this just a slip of the tongue or is he really ok with this?

Ryan's in a little bit of shock himself. He can't believe he uttered that word without thinking about it. But then he realizes that what Anna is saying is true. He's been happy this past week. He enjoys his time with Tyler and constantly thinks about him when he's not around. And when it comes to what gets him hard its pretty much only Tyler he thinks about any more so yeah he should deal with the fact that he's falling for Tyler. And then there's the look on Tyler's face as he's asking him to confirm his statement. That look of hope and happiness just makes Ryan's heart melt.

"Yeah, My boyfriend" he says still looking into Tyler's face and smiling. Then he turns to Anna "so..hands off" he jokes and bends over to give Tyler a quick kiss.

Tyler is beaming. The fact that Ryan is becoming comfortable enough to show PDA with Anna is a huge step and even though it was just a quick peck on the cheek it means the world to Tyler as it gives him hope that there may be something longer term happening.

-

While he's accepted the fact that he's into Tyler he's still not willing to be open about it. Tyler has brought up the idea of letting some friends know about their relationship once soccer season ends. Tyler admits that it won't be easy and the team will probably be all kinds of freaked out but Tyler's been out to himself for a couple of years so he's much more ready to deal with it than Ryan is. He points out that Anna knows and its no big deal. He tells Ryan that he'd like to be able to "be with" Ryan at school and not be so afraid of showing any kind of attraction to him while in school.

Ryan's still adamant that he can't tell anyone else. He's convinced that if Seth and Sandy find out he's going to lose his place in their home and because Tyler can't convince him otherwise the conversation always ends the same way.

Kristen has been great; she asks how things are going without really pushing it. She's even gotten Ryan to admit that while he's had girlfriends before his feelings about Tyler are much different. She has continued to try and convince Ryan that he should open up to Seth and Sandy but he keeps telling her that its not going to happen. She even tells him "You know that stuff like this always gets out at some point and it will hurt them to find out from someone else." Even though he knows that statement is probably true he can't convince himself to do anything about it.

The most recent change in things is that Seth and Anna have decided that they are better off as friends than in a relationship. It doesn't take long for new alliances to form and within a few weeks Summer's with Seth, and Anna and Luke are starting to explore a relationship.

Even though they have different things going on he and Seth still spend a good amount of time together. Seth has been great about making sure they have Seth/Ryan time. His real brother was never this interested in Ryan's life. Even though Seth is not into sports he tries to keep up with what's going on with the team and how Ryan is doing. Ryan realized how much Seth works at keeping up their friendship when he started joining Ryan and some of his teammates at lunch. He usually has lunch with Summer but a couple of times a week he's made the effort to sit with Ryan and interact with the rest of the team. Knowing Seth's feelings about jocks and the fact that he used to have to endure their bullying it's a huge thing for him to have taken this step. It's been good for Seth too as the guys have come to enjoy, or at least tolerate in some cases, his quirky humor. Joining the comic book club that Seth started gives them another joint topic of appreciation and Seth's love of comics is rubbing off.

Sometimes Ryan feels bad about the fact that he's hiding such a huge thing from Seth but the images of Trey and his friends bashing suspected gay guys flash into his head and he doesn't want to ruin what he has with his new brother so he continues to keep his mouth shut. Even though Seth was cool about Luke's dad he can't imagine that he'd be that cool about Ryan. Seth has had to endure years of being ostracized and accusations of being gay and it's obvious the accusations kill him. Seth would never want to have to go through the guilt by association accusations that would inevitably be thrown around.

-

Marissa is frustrated. She's finally over Luke for real. Now that Luke is starting to date Anna he's becoming a much better friend than he was ever a boyfriend. It seems that he's changed a lot since the news about his Dad came out. He's even become friends with Ryan which is a little weird for Marissa. Especially since she still wants Ryan and can't figure out why he's not making any advances since Luke is officially out of the picture.

She's been sitting in her room with a bottle of vodka moping about her situation. She's the most popular girl in school and she's single right now. That's not right. She has given Ryan every signal she can think of to let him know that she wants him and still he doesn't do anything. One last swallow of vodka and she decides to march over to the pool house and have it out with him right now.

She takes the beach path from her house and enters the back of the Cohen's yard. Since the path comes into the yard from behind the pool house she doesn't get a chance to see into the space as she approaches. Before she turns the corner she stops for a second to calm her breathing and compose herself.

"_Ok, here goes_" she thinks to herself. She doesn't want to chicken out so she quickly turns the corner, opens the door and barges into the room.

'Ryan, we have to talk…." She starts and doesn't get any further.

Ryan's on the bed and he's not alone. He's in the middle of a make out session with some one else. All she can see at this point is Ryan's back as he's all over this other person. Marissa is furious. How dare he be with someone else? Marissa has staked her claim on Ryan since day one. She will kick this skank's ass. But then Ryan rolls off of the other person and she realizes that the body underneath Ryan is not a she but a he.

Both the boys look up at Marissa and Ryan's face shows the shock he is feeling. He's been caught big time and there's no back peddling out of this. He's scrambling to get up and off the bed as quickly as he can.

Marissa stands there open mouthed for a few seconds while her mind catches up.

"What the hell are you doing?" she stammers even though it's pretty obvious what's going on.

Neither boy says anything as Marissa turns on her heals and stomps out of the pool house.

Ryan runs after her "Marissa, wait up, … please Marissa".

Marissa is furious with him, and herself. How can she have let her self get into this position? She's crushing on a gay guy. It's not fair that the guy she cares about is gay. Obviously he's being keeping this a secret from everyone. She just wants to get out of there and scream out the news at the top of her lungs. But she hears the pain in Ryan's voice and she stops.

They stare at each other for a few seconds before Ryan tells her "I never tried to lead you on Marissa. I'm really sorry about this. I really didn't want you to get hurt."

She has to think about it for a second but that's a pretty valid statement. Other than the very first night they met Ryan has been all about being friends. He's never wanted more and now she understands why. She's still upset and kinda mad but she has to acknowledge him.

"I get it. I'm just not your type" she says with a sad smile. "It's not your fault. Yeah I'm a little mad that you like someone else but I can't compete and I'll get over it. Its not like my jealousy will affect anything so it is what it is".

He smiles back at her. "So, you think we'll be able to be friends?"

"Not right now, I'm gonna need time because I still want you even though I know its not gonna happen. But I'll get over it."

"kay, take all the time you need. I'll be here."

She can tells he's freaked out and figures out that he's worried that he's going to be the next subject of gossip.

"Don't worry. I don't plan on turning you over to the gossip mill. You know, its' a little embarrassing for me too. I'm pining after the gay guy."

"Thanks" he tells her with a half smile.

-

While she has no plans on turning this into a gossip bit she does need to vent and she heads over to Summer's.

"I just can't believe it, I'm so embarrassed" she tells the dark haired girl who's lounging on her bed browsing magazines.

"I just found out why Ryan's not interested in me. Turns out I'm not his type" she continues.

Summer looks up with a questioning look "So who's his type, a skank like Holly?"

"More like a soccer player like Tyler. I walked in on them" she admits.

"Huh, what, you mean Chino is gay… and Tyler's gay? Oh my god I actually had a little crush on Tyler when we were in Jr High. All the hot boys are gay aren't they?" She ends matter of factly.

"Just my luck. I finally do the right thing and dump Luke and so I go from an undesirable boyfriend to a unavailable one."

"So…are you planning on outing them to the whole school?"

"No, I promised Ryan I wouldn't. I want to try and be friends with him so I guess I should act like one."

-

A few days later Seth and Summer are hanging out.

"Summer, I just don't get it. Luke is dating Anna so he's obviously over Marissa and now that Luke and Ryan are friends there should be no problems with Ryan and her being together. He said that he was worried about causing trouble with Luke and not wanting to get in any fights but I don't see that happening any more. We need to come up with a plan to get them together. Yeah, Yeah, that's the ticket ... we need a plan…"

"Get a clue Cohen, its never gonna happen, how dense can you be?"

"What do you mean? Of course it should happen. It'd be perfect. We could double date and everything?

"Ryan's just not into her. He's all over someone else and its just not gonna happen so get over it"

"Huh, no, no way…There's no other girl. Anna's with Luke and there's no other girls he hangs out with. Wait, are you saying…. Noo, he's into girls. He's told me he's slept with a lot of girls…." He rambles on.

"Apparently its not just girls then, cause Marissa walked in on them" she admits before she realizes that maybe this wasn't her secret to tell.

"Oh that's so not right".

Summer gets a little frustrated with Seth and hits him with a pillow which shuts him up. "Who he's with is his business and you just need to get over it" she tells him.

Seth shuts up but continues to ruminate over the ramifications of this new knowledge.

-

Seth storms into the pool house just as Ryan is exiting the bathroom. He can see that Seth is upset by the way he's looking around the room for Ryan and once he sees him by the bathroom door Seth demands

"So you have something you need to tell me?"

"Huh"

"There's this little rumor floating around and I wanted to hear it from you".

"_Ah, oh, the shits gonna hit the fan now_" thinks Ryan as he just glares at Seth not knowing what to say.

Seth sees the look on Ryan's face that tells him that yeah its true. Not that he didn't already figure that out. Once he started thinking about the last few weeks it was pretty obvious that he's been spending a lot of time with Tyler and he's been pretty giddy. Well, giddy for Ryan which can be a little hard to see but Seth has been working on his 'How to hear Ryan when he doesn't say anything' skills and Ryan's been way less broody lately which means he's been happy. Seth had chalked that up to the fact that they had been getting along so well but obviously Seth is not the one making Ryan happy, its Tyler.

"What the fuck dude?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about" Ryan tries hoping it might be something else but he knows its not and is just grasping at straws now.

Seth struggles with the words. He's not quite sure how he wants to ask the question. Finally "So how long have you been sucking face with Tyler?" Seth spits out.

Ryan stares at him for a few seconds thinking that there's nothing he can do at this point. Marissa must have told Summer and God knows who else so its impossible to deny it now. So he just nods once at Seth.

"That's just fucking great" Seth yells out Ryan. "You don't think that's something you should have told me" he continues.

Ryan's really flustered at this point and has no idea what to say so he drops down on the chair and puts his face in his hands trying to come up with a way to explain it to him. How does he explain to Seth that he's totally freaking out about how to handle this and doesn't know what to say? When he finally looks up to try and say something the room is empty. Seth is so disgusted he can't even be in the same room as him. He's really screwed now, Ryan thinks.

_"Maybe I should grab my stuff and get out of here before things get really bad." _ He looks around and tries to decide what he should bring with him if he starts running.  
><em><em>****

Sandy gets home from work. No one is in the house so he heads out to the pool house to check on Ryan. He taps on the door as he walks in and finds Ryan on his bed. He immediately knows something is wrong. Ryan has his arms wrapped around his knees and has a look on his face like his best friend just died.

"Ryan, what is it?" He asks.

Its been an hour or so since Seth stormed out and Ryan has spent the time concocting plans for how he's going to have to figure out where to live now. Now that Seth knows there's no way Sandy won't find out and then he's outta here. He hasn't been able to move from the bed since Seth left. Then Sandy walks in and asks him what's wrong with genuine concern. This is the man that took him off the streets and gave him a home. He owes him the truth no matter what the consequences.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Sure kid, you know you can always talk to me."

Sandy sits down and waits for Ryan. He's learned that sometimes he just has to wait for Ryan to open up.

"Seth hates me."

"No he doesn't. He could never hate you."

"He found out something today and he can't stand me any more. He wants me out of here."

"Ryan, I'm sure that's not true. No matter what happened I'm sure that's not the case and in any event Seth is not the one who gets to determine where you live."

Ryan doesn't say anything. He's still looking like a scared little boy so Sandy continues.

"So, what happened? … You said he found out something?"

Barely a whisper from Ryan "I'm gay".

"Oh… Oh my" Sandy responds and a lot of things fall into place for him. He knew that there was something going on between Ryan and Kirsten but even though she wasn't talking he figured he would eventually find out and this is probably what the issue was. He did some additional analysis and came up with the conclusion that Ryan's study partner Tyler must be the boy who Ryan's interested in. They have been spending a lot time together recently.

After a few seconds he tells Ryan "Actually I kind of figured I'd be having this talk with Seth, not you. Then he shows up on Thanksgiving with not one but two girls…. Either way it doesn't matter. You know we love you no matter what, right?"

Ryan isn't able to respond. He's been struck wordless. They 'love' him? His whole world view has been shattered. He was so sure that this conversation was going to go completely differently. But as he sits there considering Sandy's words he once again realizes that the world he lives in now is very different from what he dealt with in Chino. In Chino being gay was almost a death sentence, here with Sandy and Kristen it doesn't seem to matter. Sandy has considered the possibility that Seth might be gay and it didn't faze him. Ryan is having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that a male father figure in his life is ok with the fact that he likes guys.

Looks like his place here is ok, even if Seth does hate him. Sandy and Kristen may be ok with Ryan right now but the way Seth stormed out is still a problem.

"Seth still hates me. How am I going to live here with things like that?" he asks Sandy.

"Just give him time to get used to it. He was probably just a little shocked. You know that he cares about you and that he's not that kind of person. Even if he does have issues we will work through them as a family."

_"Kristen was right, I should have told him"_ Ryan thinks but just nods his head. Sandy gets up walks over and gives him a hug. Ryan actually hugs back, rests his head on Sandy's shoulder for a few seconds and just responds with a "Thanks".

Sandy lets Ryan go but puts his hands on his shoulders looking him in the eye. "Now, we've already had 'the talk' so I don't think we need to go over the specifics again but nothing changes because of who your dating, you know that right?" He says with a combination smirk, serious look.

Ryan's eyes go wide, thinking he can't be serious; he wants to have the sex talk with me about boys. This can't be happening. "Yeah, Yeah, I get it…no we don't have to do this again. I heard you the first time. And my ears are still burning" he ends hoping to end the conversation before it goes any further.

Sandy laughs at him "OK, I'll save that little piece of embarrassment for later if I need it. But seriously, I'm glad you felt you could talk to me about this. It means more to me than you realize" Sandy says as he releases Ryan's' shoulder and heads out of the room. "I think that's enough heavy conversation for one afternoon so I'll leave you to get back to your homework… or more likely give you time to call Tyler and let you tell him how mortified I just made you" he wraps up with a smile and leaves before Ryan can think of a response.

-

Ryan's out of the shower and finishing up putting his bag together for school when he hears the door knock. He looks over and sees Seth standing in the door way as if he's waiting for permission to enter. Since Seth has never been one to wait for permission to enter Ryan thinks this is it: the start of their new relationship where Seth hates him and will be overly formal. No more barging in running his mouth a million miles a minute. No more endless stories about Summer. No more jokes about his fists of fury. Its only been about 12 hours since things blew up and he already misses his friend. He can imagine the strained dinner conversations already. Looks like the next two years is going to be an interesting dance around the house where they do their best to avoid each other. At least he's got a place to stay, and Sandy & Kirsten, and Tyler…. Things aren't good, but they could be so much worse.

Not really sure what to say or do he waves him in and continues to load his books into the bag.

"So.. I was kind of a jerk yesterday."

"Huh" Ryan wasn't expecting that. He stops what he's doing to focus on Seth.

"It doesn't matter who you like, it was just that it's kind of a shock to find out your best friend is gay and mostly it was the fact that I'm pissed at you because you weren't the one to tell me. I thought we were friends" he says sadly.

Ryan's floored, this is so not the conversation he was expecting.

"You are my friend and that's why I didn't want to tell you. I was afraid that once you knew you'd hate me and I didn't want that so I figured it was best to just ignore it."

"I could never hate you. You are my best friend and remember what we said the night Luke got shot. 'Together were unstoppable … apart people get shot' ... so unless you want someone to get shot you're kind of stuck with me" Seth tells him with a smile.

"I'm sorry. Kirsten was right I should have told you."

"Wait, Mom knew?"

"Yeah, she kind of figured it out one afternoon….."

"Stop…OK OK I get the picture … and a interesting picture that must have been … no details needed…. I can just imagine Mom walking in on you. I'm sure that was just a little embarrassing."

"It wasn't quite that bad, she was just very observant and asked me. Since I can't lie to her I admitted it."

"I guess that's Mom Radar for you. Sometimes it's hard to get away with anything when she's around. Good thing she has a job or we'd really be screwed. So… Not only do we have a jock in the house, but you're dating a jock. The parents must be so happy." Seth jokes. "You know, Tyler's not a bad guy. He was never really one of the jerks who are such bullies."

"Yeah…he's great. He's kind of been pulling me out of the closet, although there may have been some kicking and screaming." Ryan tells him and Seth can see that Ryan really likes this guy just by the look on his face when he mentions him.

"Honestly, I'm a little jealous I think."

Ryan smirks at him.

"Not in the 'I want to be your boyfriend' kind of jealous but jealous just the same…. You're my best friend and I don't want to lose that. I don't want to mess it up either. So… what ever makes you happy buddy. But I reserve the right to claim my Seth/Ryan time as needed."

Seth get up, walks over to Ryan and gives him a hug, holding on for a bit. "Now this is just minty" he says with a smile in his voice.

"Since one of is minty I guess it just is" responds Ryan pushing him back and giving him a light punch in the arm.

"Hey, Hey … for years its been the jocks hitting me accusing me of being gay and now it's the gay guy punching me for being straight. I can't win can I?"

"I don't know, but I guess I won the lottery when it comes to best friends" he tells Seth.

-

Luke barges into the pool house and sees Ryan and Tyler sprawled out on the floor, books surrounding them.

"Hey guys, its official, Anna and I are now a couple" he tells them.

"Hey that's great. When did this happen?"

"After practice. We went out for coffee and I asked her how serious she wanted us to be and now we are officially boyfriend/girlfriend. You know after all that stuff that happened at the beginning of the year I never thought I'd get my life back but thanks to you guys things are good again."

"You know you had a lot to do with that. You're not such a big jerk any more" Ryan tells him, grabbing a pillow and tossing it in his direction.

Luke catches the pillow as he finally takes a look at Ryan and Tyler. They both look a little flushed as if they'd just finished up soccer practice or something and they both had really messy hair as if someone had been playing with their hair while making out….. _"Wait a minute"_ he thinks to himself.

"You guys are so busted" he says with a wink.

"What are you talking about? We aren't doing anything."

"Hate to tell you…but living with my Dad has seemed to have given me my very own gaydar. Seems I'm getting pretty good at figuring out who plays for the other team and you guys are so not on my team."

Both boys freeze for a bit not really sure what to say. Tyler knows that Ryan is probably freaked so he waits for him to take the lead. In the meantime Ryan reflects on the fact that what was supposed to be a huge secret is far from secret these days. Sandy, Kirsten, Seth, Anna, Summer, Marissa and now Luke have all figured it out or been told anyway.

"Don't know what you're talking about" he says to Luke with a reasonably straight face.

"Yeah, sure you don't. You're going to tell me that it's Marissa who's been messing up your hair? And if that's so, who's screwing around with Tyler then?" he asks Ryan as he points to Tyler's unruly mop.

"Shit, that's the second time we've been outed because you look mussed up." Ryan grumbles to Tyler. "I'm going to have to do something about that"

"Oh no your not" Tyler says. "I happen to like it when you get all aggressive with me, and now that I've finally gotten you out of the closet I'm not letting you back in."

"TMI…way too much information" Luke says laughing at them as he throws the pillow he was still holding back at the boys.

-

Life has been quiet for a few weeks. Ryan and Tyler have been hanging out with Seth and Summer and sometimes even with Luke and Anna or all 6 of them together. Its been cool being able to almost be open about things, at least when they are all together and it looks like just a group of friends to outsiders. Ryan's initial fear of being outed by Marissa or even Seth or Summer seems to have passed and he's settling down and enjoying the fact that for the first time in his life he is able to be more open about himself to his true friends.

-

"I think I've had too much to drink" Marissa states as she hands over the bottle to Holly. Since Summer has been hanging out with Seth so much and she doesn't want to be a third wheel, not to mention that means Ryan is often around, she's been spending more of her time at Holly's parties.

"I didn't think that was possible" Holly quips back.

"First time for everything. It's not helping any more. I just want to be happy again but all its doing is making me miss him more."

"Who? Oh you mean Ryan? I though you two were over?"

"Apparently there was nothing to get over. He was never interested in me. At least I know that no other girl is going to end up on his arms….." Marissa stops speaking as she realizes what she just said. She promised Ryan she wouldn't say anything and she just opened her big mouth. Hopefully Holly won't realize what she just said. No such luck.

"Wait…you mean Ryan doesn't like girls. He's into guys? OMG!"

_"Oh shit"_ Marissa thinks

-

"Fucking faggots" Ryan hears Chip say as he walks in to the locker room heading to practice. He knew something was bound to happen. Marissa had told him what she'd done. He believed her that she didn't mean to do it but it really didn't matter since the damage was done.

"Not cool Chip" Luke tells him.

"We don't need this, do you know what kind of grief we'll get for having fags on our team. I don't want to be known as the butt pirates."

Things devolve from there. It becomes obvious that the guys fall into one of three groups. Chip and a few others are extremely homophobic and obnoxious in their comments. Luke, Conner and a few others are just as firmly telling them to lay off and get over it while the great majority of the team is just silent so it's hard to tell what they really think. The yelling is getting pretty loud which attracts the attention of the coach.

"What the hell is going on here?" Coach Jones yells as he comes through the doors.

Chip jumps in first "Turns out our new guy has convinced Tyler to go gay with him and now they are 'boyfriends'" He spits out.

Before the coach has a chance to get involved Ryan decides he's had enough of this. "Fuck this, I'm out of here." Tyler is at his side before he gets to the door and the two of them leave the locker room.

Conner catches Luke's eye and with his eyes points to the door silently asking the question "Are you gonna follow them?"

"You guys are all real assholes. It was bad enough when you gave me grief about my Dad but those two guys are your friends too. You know what, if this is the type of friends you are I don't need you either. I'm out of here too. Sorry Coach but I quit too."

Luke turns around and heads out the door. A couple of seconds later Conner catches up with him telling Luke that it was cool that he stuck up for his friends that way. By the end of practice Marco and Mike have joined the walkout so that more than 25% of the team has now quit with 4 of the best starters on the team among them.

-

Seth bounced into the pool house and stopped short at the scene in front of him. Ryan, Tyler, Luke, Conner, Mike, and Marco are all sprawled out over the floor and furniture in the room and he can see the wiped out looks on most of them.

"So, I guess the rumors about half the soccer team walking out aren't all that far off?"

"Wow, that didn't take long, did it? It hasn't even been much over an hour yet and the news is already all over the school. So what exactly did you hear?" Luke asks Seth.

Summer heard from Lisa who heard from someone else that the team found out about Ryan and Tyler which turned into a huge brawl with Ryan and Tyler being kicked off the team and then a bunch of you quit".

"Not all that far off. I walked out before I could get kicked off and the guys followed me out, which I keep telling them they didn't have to do. This is my fault."

"Knock that shit off." Conner tells Ryan again. "You know you guys are not the only gay guys on the team and Chips just an asshole who we don't need to deal with. There's always going to be jerks like him around and I for one am glad I don't have to hear his shit any more."

"Wait a minute, your telling me that you're gay too?" Seth asks in confusion. Marco raises his hand a little and points to himself letting Seth know that he is to. Seth turns to Ryan and starts to babble about what kind of brother doesn't give him this kind of news.

"Not my story to tell" Ryan interrupts before he gets very far which shuts Seth up. Seth knows how hard it's been for Ryan. He's not a big talker anyway and this particular subject is just that much harder for him so Seth decides to let it go.

The rest of the week at school was pretty surreal. Ryan had expected a lot of negative comments from his classmates. Up until this point the soccer team had been heading to the playoffs for their division. Now with the loss of so many players things were going to be different and it was all Ryan's fault. He figured the school would blame him and on top of the outing he was expecting a lot of harassment.

Instead, most of the comments he received were fairly supportive. There were a lot of people who just avoided him, but that was nothing new, and a number of fag type comments but nothing like he expected. Knowing that he had the support of his friends and family (and he had really begun to think of the Cohen's as family) allowed him to totally handle any of the verbal abuse and as bad as a few of the jocks were there seemed to be no threat of violence so he was going to be able to get through the whole mess at some point.

Ryan didn't go to the weekend game but heard all about it. It was pretty much as expected. Xavier Academy had a pretty lame team and still Harbor got their asses kicked up and down the field.

Flopping down next to Ryan on the couch in the student lounge Tyler asks "So, did you get a summons from the coach today?"

"Yeah, for right after 7th period. Wonder what he wants?"

"You think he's going to ask us to come back to the team? After the beat down the team got on Saturday he's knows the teams playoff dreams are toast now."

"Yeah, but I don't think I can go back. I think I'm finally ok with the whole you-me-out thing and I don't want to have to deal with assholes like Chip every day. I'll end up kicking their ass and I can't do that if I don't want to blow my probation."

-

Turns out all 6 of the boys were invited so they entered the gym as a group. They had expected to see the coach there but were surprised that the rest of the team was with him. Actually, almost the entire team. Chip was nowhere to be seen though.

Jack, the team captain stepped forward and walked over to Ryan.

"I need to apologize to you" he started by looking at Ryan and then taking in the whole group, "to all of you. I dropped the ball the other day when I didn't step in. I don't have any excuses. What you had to put up with was unacceptable and I'm sorry. I let Chip and his bullshit seem like he spoke for the majority of us and it's just not like that. We'd like you all to reconsider your decision. When it comes down to it we'd rather have you guys on the team than someone like Chip."

Overwhelmed Ryan doesn't know what to say. Tyler's watching Ryan's face as he takes in this apology and he has an idea what's going on in Ryan's head. He still expects things to be like they were with his old family and he can't believe that he's not being made a leper for being who he is. Tyler grabs Ryan's hand turning him so they are facing each other.

"What do you say Ryan? You know you want to be on the team don't you?

'kay'

"Great" Jack says as he grabs Ryan hand and actually pulls him into a half hug with a one handed pat on the back.

The rest of the team joins in and Ryan accepts a lot of apologies while his head continues to spin with the knowledge that things are going to be ok.

-

Ryan enters the pool house after the awards banquet. The soccer team made it to the finals and won their division. Even though they got knocked out in the state finals the team made it further than they ever had before and Ryan received a lot of the credit for that. He's been recognized as one of the top 5 players in the entire division and won the team MVP award for the season.

He's completely out at school now and things are going great. For the first time ever he's able to be with who he truly wants to be with. PDA at school is a whole different experience when it's someone he likes. Now that Marco and Conner are publically out they have become very popular and always seem to be dating new guys, with the occasional girl in Marco's case. It's become a running game trying to figure out whether Marco's next date will be with a guy or girl. Now that Ryan's been exposed to a lot of different kids he realizes how good he has it with the Cohen's and how easy they made this whole experience.

The one shadow on his happiness is the fact that he was totally right about his Chino connections. Teresa had taken a job with the caterer who was working one of the charity events and she saw Tyler and Ryan kissing out on the balcony. Teresa was pretty furious at Ryan complaining about how she wasted her time caring about a fag. A couple of days later he got a phone message from Trey screaming at him that no Atwood was gay and as far as he was concerned he no longer had a brother.

Ryan was pretty bummed out for a couple of days but he quickly realized that he was better off leaving everything Chino related behind him and just accept the happiness he has earned with his new life in Newport.

-

It's a Saturday night and Marco has convinced them all to head up to LA to one of the dance clubs that is primarily gay but still has a good number of straight couples so that everyone can feel comfortable. Even though Ryan's not a dancer he has been out on the floor with Tyler and did enjoy it. He's thinking that maybe he should revise his position on dancing. If it's with the right person it can be a lot of fun, especially when Tyler takes his shirt off.

Summer, Seth, Tyler and Ryan are hanging out at the edge of the dance floor watching the various couples dancing.

"Who knew there were so many hot guys into each other" Summer says as she wraps her arms around Seth. "You know I bet we could talk at least one of them into a three way" she winks at him half joking.

Seth blinks at that. He knew Summer was kind of adventurous in bed at times but this is something new and he'd have to think about it some. Was she really serious? Before hanging out with Ryan, Tyler and their friends he never would have considered something like this but who knows, maybe. In the meantime he sees the look on Ryan's face. Ryan's obviously curious as to how Seth is going to react. He knows Ryan still has some fear about his friends not always accepting him for who he is and he can see shadows of that in his eyes so he decides to tweak him a little.

Seth looks at Ryan and smiles at him with a wink and says 'So how about it bro?"

"Hey buddy, you know I love you like a brother but hell no, I'm not loving my brother that way" He responds with a smile because he loves the fact that the two of them have gotten past any awkwardness and Seth can joke with him this way.

******Epilogue****  
><strong>The school year is almost over. Only a few more weeks and summer vacation starts. Marco and Tyler have been talking about Gay Pride festivals and Tyler has convinced Ryan to go to the Long Beach and Los Angeles parades which happen soon. Ryan's been to a number of gay clubs now but this will be another first for him and he's excited to go somewhere that he can be totally open with thousands of other people and be exposed to another new experience.

Ryan can't believe he survived a whole year at Harbor, never mind the fact that he's a two sport jock and openly gay, with a boyfriend! Baseball season had just finished and while the baseball team is not as good as the soccer team the guys were aware and accepting from day one which made the whole season so much better.

Even more amazing is how easy it's been. Once the soccer team debacle had settled down and everyone accepted that gay kids could be jocks too a bunch of other kids came out of the closet and Harbor was quickly becoming a very gay friendly school. Harassment was not tolerated and after a few suspensions attitudes settled down very quickly. Orange County, being a republican stronghold is not known for its tolerance and a few of the parents were trying to make a big deal about it but the school administration was standing firm. It might be because of the Nichol/Cohen name, or not. Either way Ryan couldn't believe how his life has changed.

He's got two guardians, parents really, who care about him and are totally supportive of who he is no matter what. Not only have they accepted him into their home and made him feel like he belongs they have publicly stood up for him on several occasions and they are great with Tyler. On top of that he's got a best friend/brother who means more to him than any of his biological family and he's got a whole group of friends and acquaintances who he doesn't have to pretend to be someone else for.

Most shocking for him, embarrassingly so, is that the yearbook came out the other day and he and Tyler were elected cutest couple in the supplement section. Ryan could never have imagined that he would be this happy about being so publically out of the closet.

It's a whole new world, and he can't believe it's his world. 


End file.
